The traditional ruler said the subsidies on fuel and maize onlybenefited a few people at the expense of majority Zambians addingthat the funds should now down to a common personin the village.

Earlier, Muchinga Province minister Col. Chanda said he was visitingthe traditional leader to introduce himself as the new minister forthe province taking over from Mr. Banda who has been redeployed intothe foreign Service.

Col. Chanda said he also wanted to take time to explain to thetraditional leaders in the province the rationale behind the removalof subsidies on fuel and maize by the Government so that in turn they can explain to their subjects.Col. Chanda said the Government was losing about K300 million permonth and about K1.2 Trillion annually through the two subsidies whichdid not benefit the majority of the Zambian people.

He said that the Government under the leadership of President Sata hastaken a bold step to remove the subsidies on fuel and maize so as tochannel the funds to other projects that will greatly benefit themajority of the poor Zambians.

Col. Chanda said the Government intends to scale up the Social CashTransfer scheme to benefit the vulnerable people in the entirecountry.

He said that the Social Cash Transfer scheme has been on pilot inselected districts adding that it is such programmes that the PFGovernment would want to scale up using the funds that will be savedfrom the subsidies that have been removed on maize and fuel.

Government recently removed subsidies on fuel and maize so as tochannel the funds to other projects such as infrastructuredevelopment.

The move has however been received with mixed feelings from a crosssection of society.

President Michael Sata has since directed Ministers and their deputiesto go country-wide and explain to the people the benefitsof the subsidy removal.